The present disclosure relates to electrical connectors that may be utilized for high speed interconnections within electronic equipment.
Complex high speed electronic systems often require electronics and interface components to be produced as subassemblies and interconnected for operations. For example, in computer systems it is common to have a high speed microprocessor and other electronics that interconnect through a high speed bus to perform the desired functions. The same holds true for modern high speed network systems wherein a large number of high speed subassemblies need to be interconnected to provide for the complex functionality demanded in the market place today.
However, interconnecting high speed electronics requires considerable care to prevent signal deterioration from, among other reasons, unwanted coupling between adjacent signals that may pass through the same connector. One method of reducing unwanted signal deterioration from unwanted coupling between adjacent signals may be achieved by surrounding a particular signal conductor, or conductor pair in a differential system, with isolation areas such as ground pads that may substantially encircle a conductor or conductor pair. Such a system is illustrated in FIG. 1.
Referring now to FIG. 1, ground pads 101 substantially encircle differential conductor pairs 103. By utilizing the ground pads 101, substantial isolation of the differential signal pair 103 may be achieved from unwanted interference from nearby conductors such as the differential conductive pair 105.
However, this method of signal isolation is highly inefficient. For example, the connector shown in FIG. 1 provides only 30 signal conductors out of 100 contact pins that may be available. That is to say, in the example in FIG. 1, approximately 30 signal pins are available out of the 100 possible yielding an efficiency of only about 30%.
Therefore, what is needed is a method and apparatus for providing high-density interconnections utilizing relatively inexpensive connectors that may still provide acceptable isolation between adjacent conductors or conductor pairs and other advantageous.